One of Our Favorite Things: The Sound of Music
“The Sound of Music” starring Mary Martin and featuring music by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein, was a huge hit on Broadway, running for 1,443 performances and winning five Tony Awards.
The movie version came along six years later, starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer and directed by Robert Wise, who had previously directed “West Side Story.” “The Sound of Music” would win five Oscars, including Best Picture.
“The Sound of Music” premiered in New York City March 2, 1965: 60 years ago Sunday.
Yes, The Trapp Family Singers Were A Real Thing
Georg von Trapp was a submarine commander for the Austro-Hungarian navy in World War I. His crews sank 11 Allied cargo ships and two Allied warships, earning him the nickname of “the Dread of the Adriatic.”
Trapp and his wife had two sons and five daughters. His wife died in 1922. In 1926, he hired Maria Kutschera from a nearby abby and married her a year later.
The Trapp Family Singers in 1946. IN the center is Maria Kutschera, the tutor who married Georg Von Trapp
In the 1930s, Trapp invested his family’s fortune in an Austrian bank but then lost it when the bank failed. Searching for a way to make a living, the talented family began performing concerts and on the radio. They hired a local Catholic priest to be the family’s musical director. The Trapps fled Austria in 1938 and eventually settled in Stowe, Vermont, where they ran an inn and continued to perform and record.
In 1949, Maria wrote a memoir, telling the story of the Trapp Family Singers. The book sold well, attracting attention from a West German filmmaker who bought the film rights from Maria and produced a comedy/drama about the family.
The film was released in 1956 and became a huge hit in Germany. Broadway director Vincent Donehue saw the film and decided it would make a great vehicle for Mary Martin, who had starred in hit productions of “South Pacific” and “Peter Pan.”
Donehue’s original plan was to feature songs that the Trapp Family Singers actually performed.
At some point, he decided to include a couple of original songs and hired the famed musical duo of Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammestein II to write them. This idea morphed into an all-original musical written by Rogers and Hammerstein.
The result was a smash hit. This, naturally, led to a film version. After seeing Julie Andrews in a rough cut of Disney’s “Mary Poppins” — which hadn’t yet been released — director Robert Wise said, “Let’s go sign this girl before somebody else sees this film and grabs her!”
'Re, A Drop of Golden Sun'
In the movie, Maria is hired to be the governess for seven children of a wealthy, retired naval officer. In fact, Georg von Trapp hired her to tutor just one of his children, who was recovering from scarlet fever. The children fell in love with Maria and convinced their father to marry her. Georg and Maria had been married nearly a decade by the time Germany annexed Austria.
The opening scene in which Andrews twirls on a hillside was shot from a helicopter. Andrews later complained that the prop wash from the helicopter — which flew quite close at times — kept blowing her over. Wise, hidden in a nearby grove of trees, would shout over a bullhorn at just the right moment: “OK, Julie! Turn!”
Considered for the role of the captain were Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Bing Crosby, Rex Harrison and Maximilian Schell — the latter being a native Austrian. Plummer reluctantly accepted the role only after he was promised a chance to flesh out the character. His singing voice was dubbed in by Bill Lee. The real von Trapp played violin, not a guitar.
Plummer’s portrayal as an aloof father upset the real von Trapp children who said their father doted on them. Plummer, on the other hand, disliked the script, calling the movie “The Sound of Mucus” and “S&M.” He complained that working with Andrews was like “being hit over the head with a big Valentine’s Day card every day.”
Charmian Carr, who played the oldest daughter, Liesl, and who sings she’s “Sixteen, going on Seventeen” was nearly 22 at the time — only 13 years younger than Plummer. Daniel Truhitte, who played her boyfriend, Rolf, was 10 months younger than her. In the Broadway play, Rolf lies to protect the von Trapp family. In the film, he betrays them.
Friedrich was played by 14-year-old Nicholas Hammond, who’d later play Spider-Man in a 1977 TV series. Brigitta was played by Angela Cartwright, who’d later appear in “Lost in Space.” Among the child actors considered for roles: Mia Farrow, Patty Duke, Lesley Ann Warren, Shelley Fabres, Teri Garr, Kurt Russell and the four eldest Osmond brothers.
Citizens of Salzburg weren’t too keen on having Nazi flags flying in their city just 25 years after the war had ended. Filmmakers offered to use newsreel footage instead, which would reveal how enthusiastically the city’s citizens welcomed the Nazis. City leaders backed off. It was extremely rainy and acold, which resulted in production delays.
Plummer complained bitterly about carrying 6-year-old Kym Karath in the escape scene, calling her “fat.” If the von Trapps had, in fact, escaped over a mountain, they would have found themselves more than 200 miles from Switzerland. The real von Trapps simply boarded a train for Italy. Adolf Hitler closed the borders of Austria the next day.
